The Marauders
by Little Witch1
Summary: MWPPLA- Remus Lupin thinks back to his sixth, and most memorable, year at Hogwarts. A year when everything came together. A year when everyone knew the truth. RR!
1. Of Back-To-School, Pyjamas and Detention...

A/N: I own absolutley nothing! Not a thing! Please read and review!!!  
  
  
  
  
  
A brutal storm raged around the small house that sat in the countryside. Wind and rain tore at its roof and porch like it was grass. Inside, a lone man rumeged around through his balongings; throwing things into a trunk and onto a bed and desk. The only light came from one small candle that sat near the bed and sent out a small glow that touched the pale mans skin. His frayed robes billowed around him as moved around the room; looking for parchment and quills. As he threw things around, he came upon an old and yellowing picture of five people. The only girl in the picture, was wrapped up in the arms of a dark haired man with glasses; her auburn hair resting over his arms. Another man with long black hair had a smirk on his face and a paticular glint in his eyes that told of mistif. The man next to him, had short, slightly gray, hair and a worn expresion on his face. The forth and final man was short, round and looked slightly out of place next to three tall men, but he seemed happy none the less. The man turned the picture over and saw in a messy scrawl, the words 'sixth year' were written. The man stopped his search and sat in the wooden desk chair, gazing longingly at the picture. That picture had been taken along time ago and all the happiness that these five people expressed were gone. Taken away by some dark force that plauged the plant like some type of disease. The man smiled slightly. He had not seen a picture of them all together in years.   
  
"We were happy then." He said to no one in particular.  
  
The mans name was Remus Lupin, one of the four Marauders that were in the picture. None of the Marauders had been together in the same room or talked in ages. But how could they? One of them was dead. Taking with him the woman in the picture. Another was on the run from the Ministry of Magic and the other was Voldemort's lap dog. James, Sirius, Remus and Peter had been the infamous Marauders. Terrorizing the halls of Hogwarts school and making the life of Slytherins a living hell. He rememberd it all to well. Those memories were the only things that kept him going these days. No one was safe or happy as long as Voldemort was around. Not to mention that his every other thought was how Harry was doing. Harry was the son of Lily and James Potter, two of his best friends. They had died at the hands of Voldemort not but fourteen years ago, he didn't know the exact reson why. The night that they died was one of the most horrific nights of his life.  
  
*  
  
Remus and Sirius had been on their way to visit Lily and James that night. They got together every once in a while to just talk and catch up, but once they got near their house in Godrics Hallow, they knew something was wrong. The Dark Mark was hanging over the house like a shadow. They raced over to the house to find it a smouldering pile of rubbel. Not a thing had been left standing, and a part of them knew that the same had been of their best friends.  
  
"Lily! James!" called Remus, walking nearer to the house.  
  
"Holy shit." Mumbled Sirius, standing still on the spot.  
  
Remus walked a little closer to the house and could feel the heat radiating off of it. The once gorgeous two story home was now a large pile of stone and wood. It was then that he heard it. A soft crying was coming from the rubbel. Remus began to hastily move things away until he found baby Harry, crying and coverd in soot. On what he asumed had been the floor was a bright green spot. It was true. They were gone.  
  
"Sirius. It's Harry." Called Remus, gently picking up the baby.  
  
Sirius slowly walked over to him, still in a slight daze. He then looked down at baby Harry and stroked his hair. As he did this, he moved his bangs and they saw a small lighting shaped scar on his forehead. It was glowing a soft green and showed that it had just been made.  
  
"They're gone Sirius. Our two best friends are gone." Said Remus, tears stinging his eyes.  
  
"I know. And it's all Peter's fault." Said Sirius, tears falling down his cheeks.  
  
Sirius clenched his fists. He had once been Lily and James' secret keeper, but Voldemort would undoubtably come for him so they made Peter it instead. Now they were gone. Peter had turned them in. The tratorus basterd had turned in his best friends. How could he have done that?  
The sound of a motorbike came close to them and parked on the road near the house. Heavy footsteps came close to them and stopped a few feet away from them. There was a moments silence; the only sound coming from baby Harry who was looked around fearfuly for his parents.  
  
"So it's true. There was news that there had been an attack here. I just hoped it hadn't been them." Said the gruff voice of Hagrid, the Hogwarts groundskeeper.  
  
"They're gone, Hagrid. Lily and James are gone. For good." Said Sirius, not taking his eyes off Harry.  
  
"Dumbledore sent me here for him. Says I have to bring him to his aunt and uncles." Said Hagrid, sniffiling a bit.  
  
"No doing Hagrid. He can't stay with them. Petunia hated us, James and Lily. How do you expect her to treat Harry." Said Remus, looking up at Hagrid, tears falling down his pale cheeks.  
  
"I'm just doin' what Dumbledore told me to do. Says he'll be safe there." Said Hagrid.  
  
"What about me. I'm his godfather after all." Said Sirius, still not looking up.  
  
"That's the thing. The Ministry thinks it was you. They think that you were their secret keeper. Their after you." Said Hagrid.  
  
"God damnit! Peter screws up and I get the blame! He did it! The lying, cheating son of a bitch did it!" cried Sirius, sinking to the ground.  
  
No one spoke. Sirius had finaly lost it. There was an uncomfertable silence between them. Sirius rarely cried or got angry at his friends, but this was different. He had known James even before Hogwarts. They had been friends most of their lives, and now James was gone. Never to return and it had been all Peter's doing. Peter had killed their best friends and now Sirius was getting the blame. Sirius, who only hurt people who broke Lily or his sisters hearts. Slightly gruff but soft Padfoot who was one of the kings of pranks was getting blamed for his best friends murder. Murder. A word that had been used a lot then, just not about their friends.  
  
"Remus, this is whats best for Harry. He will be safe there." Said Hagrid, looking at the ground.  
  
"I know Hagrid. I know." Said Remus, taking a step toward the groundskeeper.  
  
Remus unwillingly gave Harry over to Hagrid. Harry was now the only part of Lily and James that they had, and keeping him safe was now for the best. No matter how much he hated it. With one last look and a soft goodbye, Hagrid took Harry away to his aunt and uncles. This left the two friends alone. Sirius had now stopped crying and was sitting on the ground with a far away look in his eyes. Remus looked at the rubbel again, thinking of how just last week they were gatherd in the living room; laughing and playing with Harry. Now there was no laughter. The Marauders were gone. Gone forever.  
  
"I better go Remus. So that they don't catch me." Said Sirius, getting up and turning to Remus.  
  
"Your right. Goodluck. At least I know your innocent." Said Remus, looking at his last remaining friend.  
  
Then, Sirius apparated away, leaving Remus next to the house and what was left of his friends. If only they had gotten there sooner. They could have helped them. If only.  
  
*  
  
Remus whipped away a few stray tears from his eyes as he rememberd. He rememberd how a few weeks later Sirius had been sent to Azkaban. No one would believe that Sirius haden't done it. For who would believe Remus? Who would believe a werewolf? Peter was presumed dead, another reason Sirius was arrested. Many muggles were killed when he supposidly killed Peter, but that was just not true. Two years ago, Sirius had escaped and they both had confronted Peter, but they did not catch him. Sirius was still on the run and Peter was now with Voldemort. Remus thought back to his Hogwarts days, when everything was peaceful. He looked at the photo in his hand and smiled again. Sixth year had been quite a year. That was the year that everything came together.  
  
*  
  
It was the train ride to Hogwarts where the fun started. Lily and Sirius were always teasing eachother, and even when something was all the Marauders fault, she still blamed it on Sirius. He in turn loved to pull pranks on her which normaly got him punched or kicked or both. James incouraged both antics just as Peter and Remus did, even if Sirius was his best friend. Now this particular train ride started out just like anyother. Lily Evans was sitting in her compartment talking to Sirius' sister Arabella, when her handbag turned into a small orange kitten. Of course, Lily knew exactly who had done that and proceded to chase Sirius around the train screaming at him.  
  
"Change it back Sirius! Change the damn thing back!" screamed Lily.  
  
"But I thought it was rather funny!" called Sirius as he ran.  
  
"Not by a long shot! Now change it back now!" screamed Lily as she chased him.  
  
As they chased eachother, the other Marauders and Arabella looked on in amusement for this had not been the first time this had happened. This had just been a different animal. As they ran in their direction, Remus grabbed Sirius by the arm and James grabbed Lily around the waist to prevent her from killing poor Sirius.  
  
"Now Padfoot, go and change Lily's handbag back before she hurts you." Said Remus, letting go of his arm.  
  
"Fine. Spoil my fun why don't you." Said Sirius, trudging back to Lily's compartment.  
  
When he returned, he carried her black purse with not a shread of evidence that it had been turned into a cat. Sirius had a slightly sulky look on his face. He always liked to draw pranks out for long periods of time and hated it when they were cut short. This time was no ecception. Once Lily had calmed down, they all went back to their compartment and waited until they docked at Hogsmeade Station. The six of them all hung out like this. They were always together. There was at least two of them together everywhere they went. Arabella mostly hung out with only Lily, but her idiot of a brother had always insisted on tagging along. Arabella and Sirius were twins, even though Sirius liked to play the big brother act on her. In truth they were only born five minutes apart, but that was good enough for Sirius. All of the Marauders were also protective of the girls. If some bonehead boy broke their hearts, it was always James, Sirius, Remus and Peter going over to beat up said boy. Not a lot of the boys at Hogwarts took into concideration the fact that if they ever do something to upset Lily or Arabella that they would get their ass kicked. Hence why only the bravest boys even came up to them to ask them on a single date. Having four 'big brothers' was kind of intimidating. Not that that stopped them. They had broken a lot more hearts than had broken. Atfer all, they were big girls.  
The red steam engine hissed to a stop and all six people climbed out and found themselves one of the horseless carriges that would take them up to the castle. They bumped along up to the large stone building where many other carriges were dropping off students. They hopped out of the carrige and walked into the Great Hall. It's enchanted ceiling showed the gray and cloady sky that was outside; rain threatening to fall. They took their seats at the Gryffindor table and looked up at the line of frightend first years. Professor McGonagall took out a long roll of parchment and began to read off the names of the new students. In the end, Gryffindor gained eight new students. Not as much as last year, but good enough. Then the boys favorite part came. With a wave of his arm, a feast appeared on the golden plates and in the golden goblets and pitchers. To Lily and Arabella's great embarassment, the boys made complete pigs of themselves; eating like they haden't eaten all summer.  
  
"Could you guys just slow down a little bit? The food will be there when your done chewing and swallowing." Said Lily.  
  
"You can't slow them down Lil. They're pigs, eating anything that gets within a five mile radious." Said Arabella, taking a sip from her goblet.  
  
"Hey! That's insulting!" cried Sirius. "It's a ten mile radious." He added as he continued eating.  
  
This caused the girls to burst out laughing. The sky above them darkend and became coverd in swirling black and gray cloads and thunder sounded from above. A long flash of lightning lit up the sky and rain pounded down on the old castle. The Great Hall grew cold and dark, and not even all the candles in the hall could send away the darkness that was filtering in from outside. Dessert went by quickly and then the Marauders, Lily and Arabella went up to the Gryffindor common room. The common room had a warm glow radiating from the fire that battled the cold and fierce wind that whipped around outside. The group settled themselves on the sofas and chair's infront of the fire and began to talk.  
  
"So what will be the first prank to open the year?" asked Arabella, who had the same sense of adventure as her brother.  
  
"I was thinking something to say 'hi' to our old pals Snape and Malfoy." Said James.  
  
"Hm...how about turning our 'friends' invisable?" asked Sirius, smiling to himself.  
  
"For how long?" asked Lily, who, even though she was a prefect, liked to pull pranks on the Slytherins.  
  
"Just until the end of breakfast I would think." Said Remus.  
  
"Not long enough." Said Sirius, still thinking.   
  
"How about until after the first class?" asked Peter.  
  
"Sounds good. Not to short, but long enough for us to get in a good laugh." Said Lily, laughing slightly.  
  
"I like it." Said James, smiling. "Lets do it tonight. Just so they know we didn't forget about them."   
  
"Perfect! Just how I like to spend my first night back at Hogwarts." Said Arabella, getting comfertable in her spot on the far sofa next to Remus.  
  
The group waited until everyone had gone to bed, then James went upstairs to get his invisability cloak. They waited until around midnight, then they snuck out and walked quietly to the Slytherin common room. When they got there, the password was simple enough to remember. Those pompus Slytherins had the most blatent password, 'pureblood'. Once inside, they snuck up to the fifth year boys dorm and found Malfoy and Snape snooring away. They then split up into two groups; Lily, James and Remus took Malfoy and Sirius, Arabella and Peter took Snape. Lily had made sure that she brought her Charms book, and they worked their magic. The spell wasn't instantanious, but by the time the pair woke up, they would be completely invisable.  
  
"This is the best prank." Whisperd Arabella and they threw the cloak back on and ran out of the common room.  
  
It was at breakfast where the real laughter started. It was very funny to see a pair of robes come flouting into the Great Hall and seat themselves at the Slytherin table. The Marauders, Lily and Arabella were the first to break out into hysterical laughter. This caused the rest of the hall to burst into laughter and not even Sirius and James falling off their chairs could stop it. All of the teachers seemed appauled at this, McGonagall more so than the rest, but it was Dumbledore who turned it around. He was laughing too! He really didn't seem to mind the prank, and this gave the teachers the perfect opportunity to lose it.  
  
"I'm gonna kill all of you!" declared the robe known as Snape as everyone was laughing.  
  
"Sure, you do that!" said Remus, clutching his sides.  
  
The two robes then flouted out of the common room, mumbling about how imature the Marauders were. It took the hall the whole of breakfast to calm down, including the teachers who would not forget this moment for some time. The good thing was that they didn't hear Snape mention that it was the Marauders who pulled the prank, other wise they would be in a lot of trouble. It may be funny, but it was against the rules.  
  
*  
  
It took until October for people to completely forget about the prank. Not to mention the other one that was pulled right after the first full moon. Arabella and Lily did know about Remus being a werewolf. They had both firgured it out around the same time the Marauders did, but never chose to mention it until about the end of second year. Remus didn't mind them knowing, it made sure that people didn't constantly ask where the Marauders went every month. This month had been no ecception, and had resulted in Snape having rainbow coloured hair for a week. It was at this time that Sirius was getting back into the swing of things and pranking Lily more often. His latest prank on her was being put into action on this frosty October morning.  
Lily had just had a very comferting dream that made her feel warm and cozey all over. She didn't really know what it was about, but it gave her a secure feeling. She rolled over onto her back and streached her arms out infront of her. She then felt something crawling underneath the covers. Carefuly she pulled back the maroon comfeter and the stark white sheet; where she found hundreds of spiders! Spiders of all shapes, sizes and colours crawling over her legs and stumach.  
  
"Ah! Sirius!" cried Lily, waking all three of her roommates.  
  
"Lil, what is it?" asked Arabella sleepily.  
  
"Your brother...he put...spiders in my bed!" she cried, shaking her legs and jumping out of bed.  
  
Quickly Lily's fear ebbed away and was replaced by pure anger. Not even realizing that she was stil dressed in a tank top and silk pyjama bottums, she grabbed her wand and marched angrily out of the dormatory. Arabella followed her closely. She wanted to see how this turned out. Lily threw open the boys dormatory door to come face to face with a smiling Sirius, a sleepy Peter and an embarassed James and Remus. All but Sirius was still dressed in their pyjamas; James and Remus were only in their boxers.  
  
"Why hello Lily dearest. How are you this chilly morning?" asked Sirius in a sweet voice.  
  
"Sirius...GOD DAMN YOU!" she cried, tackeling him to the ground and pointing her wand in his face.  
  
"What did I do?" he asked, grinning from ear to ear.  
  
"You know what you did!" she cried, still keeping him pinned.  
  
"What did he do?" asked Remus, crossing his arms.  
  
"Put spiders in her bed." Said Arabella, walking over to them and sitting on one of the beds.  
  
"Ouch." Said Remus, knowing Lily's rather large fear of spiders.  
  
"Lily, please get off of him. I'm trying to sleep." Said Peter, rubbing his eyes.  
  
"Not until he finds some LARGE way of making it up to me." She said, her wand inches from his nose.  
  
"Make it up to you? Why?" asked Sirius, laughing slightly.  
  
"Because you scared the crap out of me and made me very pissed off and if you want to keep looking pretty you will make it up to me." She said, leaning very close to his face.  
  
"Um...no." said Sirius.  
  
Now he was pushing his luck. No one ever said 'no' to Lily when she was pissed off, and this was one of those times. That was it. She got up off him and made her way to the door, nodding her head and saying 'ok' to herself. Then, she turned around and pointed her wand at him.  
  
"Petrificus Totalus." She said.  
  
Sirius then stopped laughing and froze up. He was frozen with his arms at his sides and this shocked expression on his face. Just as Lily was walking out the door, he fell to the floor and everyone watched as the dust settled around him.  
  
"Wow." Said Arabella.  
  
"I think I'm in love." Said James, looking at the doorway.  
  
"You've been saying that since first year." Said Remus, looking at the petrified Sirius.  
  
"Well then. Let's get ready." Said Peter, slowly getting up.  
  
Arabella left to try to calm Lily down, leaving the Marauders to reverse the spell. James was, to say the least, star struck. Ever since first year when Sirius had turned Lily's hair green to match her eyes and she had put the Jellylegs curse on him; he had loved her. Not just because she didn't take any crap from Sirius, which few people did, but because she was smart, wild, quickwitted, sweet and beautiful. She was one of his best friends and the longest crush he had ever had. Not that he would do anything about it mind you.  
Lily didn't talk to Sirius for the rest of the day, but even that didn't stop him from enjoying the fruits of his labour. After all, he had gotten up at three that morning to put those spiders in her bed and he was going to enjoy her pissed off mood to the fullest.  
  
"Are you every going to stop teasing her?" asked Remus that day at dinner as they watched Sirius do Lily's homework.  
  
"Nope. It's just too much fun." Replyed Sirius as he grabbed another piece of parchment.  
  
"You do realise that you are doing her homework for a week." Said Peter.  
  
"Yes I do." Said Sirius.  
  
"Then to save yourself the agony, why don't you just stop pranking her. It would save you from future bruses." Said James.  
  
"But what would I do for fun?" asked Sirius, looking up from his work.  
  
The Marauders laughed at Sirius' reasoning. No matter how many times Lily would curse him or hit him, he would still pull pranks on her just to keep things interesting. They had a very brother, sister relationship, and what was a relationship without sibling rivalry. In this case it meant torture. You had to admire his courage though. Not even Arabella went near Lily after she had been pranked. Not even after she had let off some steam on Sirius.  
  
"By the way, I have a new prank on Miss. Evans that I'm sure you would all like." Said Sirius as he packed up his bag.  
  
"What is it this time?" asked Remus.  
  
"Well my dear Moony, this prank is sure to also send my sister off the deep end." Said Sirius, leaning forward.  
  
They then plotted against the sixth year girls who sat just spaces away from them. Even if it meant the wrath of their two best girl friends to put this prank into action; it was worth it. It was two weeks later withought a single prank that tipped the girls off that something was up. The Maruders never went more than a few days without pulling a prank on atleast a Slytherin, never the less two weeks. Lily and Arabella talked about it the day before the plan was set to be exicuted and figured it out.  
  
"Their going to prank us." Said Lily.  
  
"It's got to be big, or else they would have done it a long time ago." Said Arabella.  
  
"It's probably going to happen at night or at breakfast where everyone can see." Suggested Lily.  
  
"Probably. We should always be on our guard, just to make sure that they don't catch us by surprise." Said Arabella. "We should also get them back. They can't just expect to get away with it."  
  
"Your right. Lets start planning." Said Lily, rubbing her hands together.  
  
And so it was on. A small prank war that not even the Marauders were aware of. Little did they know, that they were in for quite a surprise when both groups awoke.  
  
Lily slowly awoke early, as she normaly did. She made a move to stretch her arms, but found them bound to her sides. She tried to move her legs, but found them bound together aswell. Lily lifted her head up and looked around the room, to find that she was in a cacoon of silly string. Not just any silly string mind you, but wizard silly string. The kind that you spray as many times as you like, but if not magicaly remouved turned the wearer into a bonified crysilis.  
  
"Arabella!" she called, turning her head the best she could to face her friend.  
  
"What the hell!" exclaimed Arabella as she now discovered the silly string.  
  
The girls then began the rather hard task of getting out of their cacoons. It wasn't easy concidering that the silly string had about ten hours to grow. All around their side of the room was also coverd in silly string and took them quite a while to find their way to their wardrobes. Once they got there, more horror struck them. All of their robes had been shrunk to the size of doll clothing. Knowing very well who had done this, they grabbed their wands and ran, as best they could, out of the dormatory.  
  
"Marauders!" they screamed.  
  
In the boys dormatory, they had a similar experience. James was the first to awake, being an early riser, and found that he was still in his bed. Everything seemed normal. With the thought of the prank that had been pulled the night before, he happily flung the curtain open and stepped out of bed. To end up falling on his face. James looked up and saw his bed, looking down at him.  
  
"Guys! Wake up!" yelled James.  
  
The other three Marauders slowly awoke and had a similar experience to James'. It didn't take long for the four boys to realise who had done this, they grabbed their wands and ran out of the topsy turvy room.  
  
"Oh Lily, Arabella!" they screamed.  
  
It was quite a sight to see that morning, as two girls in silk pyjamas and four boys in boxers ran into the semi-deserted common room. The girls were still coverd in silly string and the boys were rubbing hurt limbs from when they had fallen out of bed. Not one of them had a happy face, even though their prank had been a success. They were all glairing at eachother and no one said a word for about two minutes, until Lily spoke.  
  
"Whos bright idea was this?" she asked, looking at the infuriated Marauders.  
  
"No need Lil, we all know it was my brothers doing." Said Arabella, glairing at her twin.  
  
"Now don't blame me for everything! It was Prongs' idea for the cacoons of silly string. I just wanted the room coverd in it!" cried Sirius, shooting dagers at the girls.  
  
"And who's idea was it to shrink out robes?" exclaimed Lily, her teeth gritted.  
  
"Now that was all of us." Said Peter, who then got seething looks from his friends.  
  
"And whos idea was it to put our beds on the ceiling?" asked James.  
  
"Come of it Prongs, we all know they're not smart enough to come up with it on their own. They helped eachother." Said Sirius.  
  
"That's it!" screeched Arabella, lunging at her brother.  
  
"Potter, I'm going to curse you to the end of time!" screamed Lily, advancing towards James.  
  
"Is that a promise?" asked James, turning on his heel and running.  
  
Lily chased James all around the common room, throwing curses at him, which luckily missed him. Arabella was attacking her brother and Remus and Peter were trying to get her off of him. Lily finaly gave up on using her wand and tackled James right into Remus and Peter. Sirius managed to throw Arabella off him and threw a curse at her, which hit a chair leg. Soon all had forsaken their wands and had chosen hand-to-hand combat and tackled anyone who got in their way.  
  
"What is the meaning of this?" came a voice from the portrat hole.  
  
The group of six stopped fighting eachother and looked over to where the voice had come from, and saw a VERY angry McGonagall standing infront of them. She had her hands on her hips and her lips were pursed in a 'don't mess with me' manner. The group was a sight to behold. Lily was strateling James and was trying to reach for his knealk while Peter was trying to pull her off. Sirius, Remus and Arabella were in the same situation, eccept it was very hard to get Arabella off of Remus, concidering she kept punching Sirius in the leg or arm.  
  
"What is the meaning of this?" asked McGonagall.  
  
"Um...we can't really explain it." Said Peter.  
  
"Well you will explain it to me and the headmaster. Throw on some robes and follow me." Said McGonagall, exiting the portrat hole.  
  
The group walked up to the boy's dormatory and threw on some robes; the girls had to borrow some concidering theirs were shrunk. They then followed there rather pissed off head of house to the headmaster's office. Once inside, they began to get very nervous. The headmaster had been in the Great Hall and McGonagall had gone to get him, though they didn't know what they were going tell him.  
  
"What do we say?" asked Lily, figiting in her spot standing next to James.  
  
"I don't know, but we can't certanatly tell him about our pranks." Said Remus.  
  
"Then what do we tell him? That we suddently felt like wrestling in our underwear." Said Arabella.  
  
It was at that time that Professor Dumbledore and McGonagall walked into the office. What he saw was not what he had expected. At this moment, both parties were coverd in silly string with rug and punch marks on their bodies. All of them looked a mess. Dumbledore sat down at his desk and motioned for them to do the same.  
  
"Well, it has come to my attention that you six were found wrestling in the Gryffindor common room. May I ask why?" said Dumbledore calmly.  
  
"Well, we had a slight disagreement this morning." Said James.  
  
"Oh really. What about, if you don't mind me asking?" asked Dumbledore.  
  
"Well...um...that is to say we..." stutterd Arabella, trying to think of something to say.  
  
"That is alright. If you do not want to tell me, you don't have to. Although I will have to punish you for your desplay this morning." Said Dumbledore.  
  
"What do you suggest professor?" asked McGonagall.  
  
"I think that you should all help Professor Burk in the potions classroom every evening for the next week. Starting tonight." Said Dumbledore. "He's been saying that he needs help to organize some potions ingredients and some help cleaning up."  
  
"Yes professor." They chorused sadly.  
  
"You can go now." Said Dumbledore.  
  
This was absolutly horrible. A nightmare. Professor Burk was the most hateful professor in all the school. He especialy hated the six of them for being so 'happy' all the time. This was the worst possible detention in all the detentions they had had. Sure they had had detention with him before, but not for a whole week.  
  
"This sucks." Said Lily, hanging her head and pulling the robe around her.  
  
"It's not so bad Lil. At least we're all together." Said James, hugging her with one arm.  
  
"Yeah. I guess your right." She said.  
  
"That's the spirit." Said James.  
  
"Yeah. We'll show that freak that not even he can get us down." Said Sirius, thrusting his fist in the air.  
  
They walked back to the Gryffindor tower, getting strange looks from the students that they passed. After all, they weren't exactly wearing very much. Right as they were about to separate, Lily dragged the boys up to their dormatory to make them change their robes back and get the string out of their room. They were all dreading their evening detention with Professor Burk, but they just had to tough it out, even if it meant strange looks from the whole school.  
  
The day had been quite interesting, to say the least. The twelve people who had been in the common room that morning had told every Gryffindor, and then they had told the whole school. Now everyone knew that the Marauders, Lily and Arabella had fought in the common room, in their underwear. Snape and Malfoy had the most fun with this information. They found it quite amusing to remind them about it every minute of the day. Soon, night fell upon the castle and the six trudged down to the dugeons for their detention. When they got there, they found Burk waiting for them with boxes and boxes littering the floor.  
  
"Ah, the delinquents are here." He said, smiling with contempt. "For your detention today, you will be labbeling what is in these jars. I really needed to get organized." He said, gesturing to the boxes on the floor.  
  
"You mean all these?" asked Sirius, gaping at the floor.  
  
"Yes Mr. Black. You should get this done tonight. I expect it." Said Burk. "I, however, will not be supervising. I have to go to my office to get some papers and things for next days lesson. Have fun." He said, walking out of the room.  
"He seriously expects us to do all of these. Today." Said Sirius, still in shock.  
  
"Yes Padfoot I think he does." Said James.  
  
They each grabbed a cardboard box full of jars and began the very boaring task of trying to identify what was in each jar. Most of it looked like it was moulding or decomposing, not something they would want to have around. It was about eleven o'clock when they were almost done, not a word spread between them for four hours, that James opened a jar full of jellied something-or-other and accidentaly sprayed it all over Lily. They purpulish goo was on her knealk, shoulder, hair and leg and was dripping slowly to the floor.  
  
"James!" she cried, trying to whipe the goo off her.  
  
"What?" he asked, like he didn't know anything.  
  
"You got it all over me!" she shriked.  
  
"Oh did I now?" he asked, smirking.  
  
Lily then grabbed one of the jars, opened it, and threw pickled newts tails towards him; only for it to end up on Remus. It was then that the war was started. They gave up trying to label the jars and instead threw the contents of the remaining jars over eachother. By midnight, when they thought they would be done, everyone was converd from head to toe in things that you couldn't even imagine. When the group decided to leave, having had enough of this detention, they bumped into a rather angry looking Professor Burk, who was convinently blocking the door.  
  
"What is this mess? Explain yourselves?" he asked through clenched teeth,   
looking around at his disgusting classroom.  
  
"Well, you see, we got board and made up a little game. Would you like to play?" asked Sirius, smiling broadly.  
  
"Get out NOW!" screamed Burk, moving away from the door to let the slimy students go.  
  
The Marauders, Lily and Arabella ran as quickly as they could out of the dungeon and up to the common room. They were laughing all the way there, leaving behind gooy footprints. Even though Lily and James were treading on thin ice as prefects, nothing could stop them from enjoying the look on Professor Burks face when he saw them. It was priceless.  
  
  
A/N: Well, this is the first in so many chapters. They will get better though. Expect: Voldemort, romance, revield secrets, Dementors, Death Eaters, and many more pranks. There will probably be about five chapters. There might be more depending on how the plott line goes. Remember to Read and REVIEW!! 


	2. Of Kisses, Maps and Pumpkin Juice

A/N: Well, this the second chapter of this fic. This is mostly a background chapter and thoughts. I hope you like it! Don't forget to read and review.  
  
  
It was now December, and the Marauders were now back into the swing of things. At this moment, and for the last week or so, Lily and Arabella were not talking to James and Sirius. It seems that their favorite Marauders thought that it was funny to make the door of their dormatory disapear and trap them in their room until lunch. To top it off, James decided to give Lily a rather 'nice' wake up call by deciding to dump a bucket of ice water all over her. It seemed that her previous comment for him to 'go soak his head' had not been well liked. So now, they were not speaking to eachother, and everything got suprisingly dull around the Gryffindor common room.  
At this moment, Lily was sitting alone reading, having no clue where the Marauders or Arabella were located. Arabella had seemed to be disappearing a lot lately, and Lily didn't know where too. Arabella also didn't seem into sharing where she went and changed the subject almost imidietly. Lily just shrugged it off as someone new she was snogging, and hadn't really thought much of it for the past couple days. Sadly, her least favorite person decided to waltz into the deserted common room and sit down in a chair infront of her.  
  
"Hello Potter." Said Lily, turning a page in her book without bothering to look up or even glance at James.  
  
"Evans." Said James, taking out some unfinished homework.  
  
Not a word was spread between the two as they worked silently. Lily didn't exactly feel like fighting with him today. All she wanted to do was work quietly and wait for Arabella to show up. Both Lily and James seemed to be fighting a lot more these days. Sure they had fought before, over some little prank or something really stupid, but it never lasted for more than a couple of days. So when they weren't even making eye contact any more, the rest of the Marauders were getting slightly worried. Remus and Peter were the ones that wanted it to end the most. They couldn't stand to see four of their friends not speaking to eachother, and for reasons unknown, Arabella was spending less time with Lily and the guys, which made things very awkword between everyone.  
It was that time, when the silence had been hovering over the two for about fifteen minutes, when Sirius, Remus, Peter and Arabella came walking into the common room, laughing and joking like nothing had ever happened. Lily and James looked up and glared at their friends. How could they patch things up?  
  
"Hey guys, whats up?" asked Peter, sitting down in one of the arm chairs and looking at the two people.  
  
"How did you patch things up?" asked Lily, glairing at Arabella as she sat down next to her. She was just a little upset with her and that she was no longer angry at Sirius.  
  
"We just talked." Said Arabella, smiling. "Oh, and I poured pumpkin juice all over him." Said Arabella, giggling to herself as she looked over at Sirius.  
  
"Have you two patch things up?" asked Remus, looking between the two.  
  
"Nope." Said James, glairing at Lily with his cold blue eyes.  
  
"Why not? It was just water. And we did make it to our afternoon classes." Said Arabella, her mouth hanging open.  
  
"It was not just the water, or our classes. It's the fact that he never apolagized." Said Lily, lifting her book back up to her face.  
  
"I didn't apolagize! How about when you finaly came out of your room and turned my hair, clothes and skin emerald? You didn't reverse it for two days!" cried James, looking at her with loathing.  
  
"And you deserved it! I missed a whole bunch of notes and I got detention!" cried Lily, tossing her book down on the floor.  
  
"Screw notes and detentions! I didn't get a date for a week after that!" screamed James, standing up, slightly red in the face.  
  
"Oh, how horrible? You didn't get to snog some horrible blonde bimbo in a broom closet. Big freakin' deal!" yelled Lily, standing up also.  
  
"Go to hell!"   
  
"Right back at 'cha!"  
  
The two then stomped off to their respecable dormatorys, slamming their doors shut silmultainiously. This had hopped to be a peaceful day, but that had all gone out the window. Remus, Sirius, Peter and Arabella stood in the common room speechless. It was almost Christmas, and if they didn't make up soon there would be no fun during the holidays. Their entire group of six were staying at Hogwarts for Christmas, even with Voldemort lurking about most of the school had decided to go home for the holidays. Not to mention the fact that Lily and James were made for eachother, everyone eccept them knew it. How jaded were they?  
  
"We have to do something about them. They can't stay angry at eachother forever." Said Arabella.  
  
"But what do we do? They won't get within two miles of eachother." Asked Remus, looking between dorms.  
  
"All we have to do is...is...is...something or I'm going to go crazy!" cried Sirius, sitting down on the couch.  
  
The four then thought of some miricle that would get Lily and James talking to eachother again. They were the two most stubborn people that they knew, and neither one of them would apolagize until the other did it. Or until hell froze over.  
  
  
Lily was sitting in her dorm on her neatly made bed thinking about the asshole formerly known as James. He was such an idiot. Ever since first year when they tried to become friends; well that didn't exactly work out too well. James was the first out of the Marauders to play a prank on her, but it wasn't the prank itself, it was the fact that he laughed about it for a week afterwords that made her think that he was really conceded. Then more things happened to cause the hatred between them to grow. They played pranks on eachother at every turn, and around November, when everyone was growing quite sick of their constant bickering, Lily decided to call James 'Jamie' for two months. Well, this didn't exactly get her on his good side, so he retaliated by calling her 'Lenerd' for the same time frame. They fought all through first year, practicaly non-stop. Lily rememberd how much she hated him, but even though she never laughed at his pranks on her, the ones on other people always made her laugh. She just couldn't help it. Sure the pranks back then were slightly childish, but they were still funny as hell. Sirius had only pranked her three times that year, the brother sister bond not as strong as it was now. Even with James it was probably the most peaceful year ever.  
It was that summer when everything in their relationship changed. He had owled her around the middle of July and told her that their constant fighting was stupid and that they should atleast try to get along. She agreed to this, and they spent the entire summer owling eachother as friends, without a hateful letter in sight. Once they got back to school, a lot of people noticed a change in them. They weren't at eachothers throuts for one, but they also laughed around eachother and smiled at eachother and even sat next to eachother. It wasn't till October that their friendship was made evident. Malfoy, being the big git he is, decided to go up to her, infront of the Marauders and call her a mudblood. Big mistake. Sirius went crazy and tried to rip his head off, but he was held back by Remus and Peter. No one thought to look at James, who was furious at Malfoy. He calmly walked up to him and threw the biggest curse he knew at the time at him.  
  
"Thanks." She had said, looking at James and smiling.  
  
"Hey, no one insults my Lilybelle and gets away with it." He had said, smiling back at her.  
  
They then walked back to Gryffindor Tower together. Arabella and the rest of the Marauders were speechless. James...Prongs...the guy Lily just couldn't stand had stood up for her and had cursed Malfoy into oblivian. It had taken the other four about ten minutes to realize that they had left, so naturaly they had followed and asked them about it. After that, their fights had become few and far between, but Lily didn't think that their friendship would ever be reconsiled. Which was too bad. Ever since that one act of chivalry, Lily had been in love with James. Yes, Lily Evans was in love with James Potter. That, and many more times after that when he had stuck up for her, was what made her realize that he wasn't some conceded, bimbo loving, git. He was caring and loving, sweet and kind, and not to mention wild. But Lily loved his wild side. It was a little more low key than Sirius', but it was still there. She loved so many things about them that she couldn't name them all. She loved his lopsided grin and his messey black hair. She loved his sweet, soothing voice and the way he could make her feel better by just looking at her. She loved everything about him, she just couldn't show it to him. But she had to admit, she did miss being nice to him. She missed him so much. Even though she loved him and missed him, right now she was pissed off at him. He had started it this time, and Lily would no sooner apolagize first than kiss Snape.  
  
  
James was sitting in his room on his bed, the curtains closed tightly around him. Boy did Evans anoy him. She anoyed him to no end, but then again, she was cute when she was angry. 'No! Don't think like that!' he thought to himself. She had turned him green and caused him to be the laughing stock of most of the school. He had been hoping to as Valerie McKinnon out that day, but Lily had screwed him over, and so he didn't get to ask her out; and he probably never will. Yes, in a way Lily was right. James, not to mention Sirius, was the playboy of the school. Girls fawned over him and he had dated most of them, but still none of them compared to Lily. Even thought he would never apolagize to her first, he still loved her and only made it look like he was terrably broken up about not getting a date. In truth, he was more broken up over not speaking to her. He missed the sound of her voice and the way she looked when she smiled at him, which when they weren't fighting was quite often. He missed the way she could make any problem, no matter how big go away. Yes, since the first time she had made him laugh, which was at Sirius' expense, but I digress, he had loved her and he always will. No matter how many idiotic, self-absourbed bimbos he dated. No many how many how many dumb jocks she dated. He would always love her.  
But right now, he was angry at her. The lest she could have done when she got out of her dorm was curse him or hex him or brake a bone, those were easily fixed, but no. She had to get major payback and turn him emerald, just the colour of her eyes so everyone would know who did it. She had to humiliate him for two days, just at the right amount so that she wouldn't feel bad when she had to get one detention from each of her morning teachers. James was angry at her not just for that one reason. She wouldn't apolagize for it! She wouldn't come up to him and say that she was sorry for humiliating him infront of the whole school. He just knew that she was waiting for him to apolagize, but he would never do such a thing until she did it first. After all, he had to atleast keep his dignity.  
  
  
Arabella, Sirius, Remus and Peter were bent over a rather ratty piece of parchment in a far corner of the library and whispering to eachother so as not to draw attention to themselves. Or get yelled at by Madame Pince. They were looking at the Marauders map, that they had made in the end of fourth year. The map showed that their friends were still in their dormatory's, probably mopping about. The four of them were trying to come up with some plan to make Lily and James friends again. Nothing seemed to work at the moment.  
  
"We have to do something. They can't stay mad at eachother forever." Said Remus, his voice low and hushed.  
  
"But what do we do Moony? They refuse to say anything to eachother unless they scream it." Said Sirius, who had had enough of their fighting.  
  
"We could handcuff them together." Suggested Peter, who hated to see his friends fight.  
  
"They would kill eachother before our first class. Lily also takes some classes that James dosen't. They would have a screaming fight for which class to go to." Said Arabella, seeing a rather large fault in the plan.  
  
"Then what do you suggest Miss. I-Know-Everything?" asked Sirius, throwing a glair to his sister.  
  
"I don't know." Said Arabella. "Waite. Their both in the common room." Said Arabella, pointing to the spot on the map that was the Gryffindor common room.  
  
Lily had decided to go back to reading and went downstairs to get her book, which she had left there during her fight with James. Once down there, she saw that James had also come back down. She stood still on the steps leading down from the girls dorms and he stood oposite her on the boys steps. They just staired at eachother, not glairing or smirking or smiling. Just looking. They didn't say anything to eachother, they didn't think to. It took five minutes to realize that they had come down there for a reason, and James was the first to move for his homework which was lying on the floor in a heap. Lily moved soon afterword and walked over to the sofa and picked up her book, Hogwarts: A History. She pressed the book to her chest and turned to go, but then she stopped and turned back around, to see James standing there with his homework in his arms. In hopes to make some sort of civilized conversation, she decided just to say something short, about something insignifigant.  
  
"What class?" she asked, nodding to his homework.  
  
"History of Magic." Said James, a rather blank look on his face.  
  
"Binns' stupid essay huh." Said Lily in a smaller voice than she meant to.  
  
"Yeah. I have been too busey to do it until now." He said, the same look on his face.  
  
"You do know its due tomorrow." She said, pulling her book closer.  
  
"Of course." He said, turning slightly to leave.  
  
Just as she thought that he was going to leave, that they got through one meeting without fighting, he turned back to her and stepped forward. He stopped right infront of her, so close that she could feel his breath on her. Smell the scent of rain and strawberries that clung to him. They looked into eachothers eyes, green meeting blue. She didn't move as James summund up all his courage, leaned down, almost in slow motion, and brushed his lips against hers. It was quick, and soft, and sent electricity flowing through her. After that split second, James walked away from her and up to his dorm.   
Lily stood there, in a trance, a million thoughts racing through her brain. He had kissed her. One of her best friends, the one who she hated at the moment, the one she loved had kissed her. She felt a slight tingeling feeling that lingured on her lips and kept her from moving. After a little while, she realized that she was still standing in the common room and shook her head.  
  
"That guy!" she exclaimed, getting into a slight huff and running back to her dorm.  
  
"What was that?" asked Arabella, looking at the map and frowning in confusion.  
  
"I...don't know." Said Remus, cocking his head to one side.  
  
"They were close to eachother. Their dots were right next to eachother, like they were hugging or something." Said Sirius, flabbergasted.  
  
"I don't think they hugged. It was too short and she stood there for along time afterword. Like Lily was stunned or something." Said Arabella.  
  
"But what could they have done that would have stunned her?" asked Peter, turning to his friends.  
  
Arabella leaned in more and the rest did the same. "It's not what they did. It's what James did." She said, smirking at them.  
  
Lily was lying on her bed, Hogwarts: A History lying out infront of her. She had been stairing at the same page for fifteen minutes, but still couldn't get past the first scentance. She kept thinking about the kiss. What did it mean? Why had he kissed her? Did he like her? Or was he just trying to make her the next flavour of the week? All these thoughts were running through her mind, but one single thought blocked all these out. It felt so right. There had been this spark, this...feeling that she had gotten when he kissed her that she had never felt with anyone else. Like he was the one that she was supposed to be with. But that couldn't be. At some times she couldn't even stand to be in the same room with him. No matter how much she loved him and cared about him.  
The door creeked open and Arabella came waltzing in and sat on a chair infront of her. Arabella looked at her with her head resting on her arms and she looked like she wanted to know something. Lily just didn't know what.  
  
"What do you want?" asked Lily, still looking blankly at her book.  
  
"What happened?" asked Arabella, like she had known what had previously gone on.  
  
"Were you spying on me?" asked Lily, looking up from the book in shock.  
  
"No, not exactly. Me and the guys had the Marauders map." Said Arabella, like that was much better.  
  
"What do you know?" asked Lily, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"Only that James' dot moved to yours, stayed there for a second and then moved away, leaving you quite stunned." Said Arabella.  
  
"Nothing happened." Said Lily quickly.  
  
"What did he do?"  
  
"Nothing!"  
  
"It was something. Now tell me."  
  
"He did nothing. End of story."  
  
"Did he hug you?"  
  
"No."  
  
"I'm going to go out on a limb here, did he kiss you?"  
  
Lily didn't reply to that. She was afraid that her protest would sound too fake and that Arabella would know staight away. As she thought about it, being quiet wasn't much better. Especialy infront of Arabella.  
  
"He did! He kissed you! Where?" asked Arabella suddenly.  
  
"He did not...kiss me." Whisperd Lily, looking down at her book again.  
  
"Was it on the cheek?" asked Arabella, scooting her chair closer to the bed.  
  
"No." whisperd Lily.  
  
"Then did he kiss you on the lips?" asked Arabella, leaning forward.  
  
"Um...yes." Whisperd Lily. She despertaly wanted Arabella to go away and be happy with the information so that Lily could think in peace.  
  
"Wow. I think I'm going to go downstairs." Said Arabella, getting up and walking out of the dormatory.  
  
Lily then got back to looking blankly at the book. The words on the page seemed blurred together and unlegible. She then shut the book, pushed it away from her and rested her head in the arms. She just didn't know what to think anymore. Everything was so confusing. The kiss, her relationship with James, everyones relationship. It was just so confusing, and yet so blatently simple.  
  
In the boy's dormatory, James was lying in bed looking up at the ceiling and mentaly kicking himself for what he had just done. He was an idiot! Why did it occur to him to go up to Lily and kiss her, when they were pissed off at eachother no less. He had run off so fast that he never got to see her reaction, so he didn't know wheather or not she was furious with him. A million thoughts were running through his head. Did she like it? Did she like him? Did she hate him? Did she like the kiss? He was so afraid of her reaction that he didn't dare to go back downstairs. He didn't want her to be even angrier at him than she already was.  
The dormatory door opened and Sirius, Remus and Peter walked in and sat around him. They all looked like they knew something, and if James knew them they did. James sat up and looked at his friends. They were up to something. He knew they were.  
  
"So, what happened with Lily?" asked Remus, raising an eyebrow at him.  
  
"Nothing happened. I haven't the slightest clue what your talking about." Said James, looking down at his lap.  
  
"Yes you do. We saw you on the map and you two were awfuly close to eachother. What did you do?" asked Sirius, who was looking him straight in the eye.  
  
"Fine, if you must know. I...I...I...Oh do I have to tell you?" asked James, looking at them with pleading.  
  
"Yes, you do. We want to know. Besides, we're your friends. We should know these things." Said Remus, looking to the others.  
  
"Fine. I...kissed her." Said James softly.  
  
"On the hand?" said Sirius.  
  
"Padfoot! I'm trying to tell you and you make jokes! I kissed her on the lips." Said James, slightly upset.  
  
"Ok then. We're gonna go downstairs." Said Remus, shocked at his friend.  
  
Once Arabella, Remus, Sirius and Peter were gatherd in the common room, they told eachother what they heard, and figured that they weren't lying. It then became a matter of figuring out what all this meant, and figuring out a plan to make them not hate eachother. Christmas was coming soon, and they had to be friends by then. Or else this was going to be one dull holiday.  
  
  
A/N: Ok, I have a lot of free time on my hands so that's why this is finished so quickly. If you want to figure out where Arabella's been going, what the guys plan is and wheather it will me a merry Christmas, keep checking this fic for updates! Don't forget to review!!!!! I need them. 


	3. Of Mistletoe, Classrooms and Closets

A/N: This is chapter three, I hope you like it! Please review. Pretty please! Thanx!!!!!  
  
  
  
Snow fell lightly onto the grounds and castle of Hogwarts. Hagrid, the Hogwarts grounds keeper brought in giant Christmas trees cut from the Forbbiden Forest and the house elves were making wonderful feasts down in the kitchens. Most of the students had gone home for the Christmas holidays, and the Gryffindor common room was quite empty and quiet. A warm fire burned in the harth and the Christmas decorations and tree took up most of the space in the common room. The Marauders were gatherd in the common room, all eccept for James, who was somewhere in the castle.  
Lily and James were still not talking, it had been a week since the kiss, neither one of them could keep it out of their minds, but they still refused to speak to eachtoher. Even when they were in the same room they wouldn't speak to eachother, for reasons neither could explain, but it was making some of their friends quite angry. Sirius, Peter, Remus and Arabella didn't know what to do with their friends, and no matter how many idea's they came up with. They had been coming up with idea's to get them to make up for days, but still nothing. The kiss had only complicated things further, and so they were once again sitting in tense silence, for once having nothing to talk about.  
Finaly Arabella had had enough, and since dinner had passed hours before, she decided to go down in the kitchens and get a snack. She also hoped to meet a certain someone there. Maybe he would read her mind.  
  
Arabella stood up from the armchair, straightening her jeans. "I'm gonna go get a snack. Anyone want to come?" she said, looking at her friends.  
  
"Sure, I can't stand the tention." Said Remus, getting up and following her out the portrat hole.  
  
This left the other three, Lily was reading the book 'Hogwarts: A History' once again and Peter and Sirius were playing wizards chess. All in all, the common room was extreamly quiet. Soon, Sirius whopped in happiness, having once again beaten Peter at chess. This didn't even phase Lily, and Sirius packed up his chess pieces, sitting down on the sofa next to Lily.  
  
"What's up Lil?" asked Sirius, sitting crosslegged infront of her.  
  
"Nothing's up Sirius. I'm fine." Replyed Lily in a monotone voice. She sounded slightly sad.  
  
"You sound very sad Lil. Wouts wong?" asked Sirius, talking in a slightly babyish tone.  
  
Lily looked up from her book, a slight frown on her face. "What if I were to tell you that not even I know whats going on in my life?" asked Lily, placeing the closed book down on the floor.  
  
"Then I would say you were sick, or crazy or you were going off the deep end." Said Sirius, ticking the list off on his fingers.  
  
"Ok, ok. I'm just confused. That's all. I'm having trouble understanding some things." Said Lily, leaning back against the arm of the sofa.  
  
"That's understandable. Maybe you're having an off day." Said Sirius, getting up off the couch. "Well, I'm gonna go find Prongs. See ya Lils."   
  
Sirius walked off, knowing all to well that Lily wasn't just having some sort of off day. She was thinking about the kiss, and that's what she was confused about. She didn't know what it meant, why James did it, or even her own feelings. Lily got up and decided that she was going to go take a walk outside. She got on her cloak and scarf and walked out into the snow filled grounds.  
James walked around the Hogwarts grounds, just outside the forest. He was still very confused over Lily's reaction to the kiss. The next time he saw her, at dinner that day, she acted the same way to him. He figured that she was even more angry at him then before, so he decided to act as if nothing ever happened. He wanted to know how she felt about it, what it meant to her, and about their relationship. James just could never bring herself to talk to her, he was slightly afraid that she would yell at him...some more.   
It was then, when they were both so wrapped up in eachothers thoughts, that they happened to cross paths. They actualy bumped right into eachother. They both looked up, intending to apolagize, but upon seeing eachother their eyes went wide and they stood still. A million thoughts were running through both their heads. After about a minute of starring at eachother, the both ran in the oposite direction, their faces red. Not just from the cold.  
  
Sirius, Arabella, Remus and Peter were all sitting in the common room, slightly hoping that their friends weren't out there murduring eachother. Right after Sirius left Lily, he went out and found Remus and Arabella and dragged them back so that they could talk. Sirius had had enough. He was never a patiant person, and just sitting there, waiting for Lily and James to make up was enough to make him go crazy. Well...more crazy then he already was. Now they were sitting around a table, Peter had just checked to make sure that no one was coming. Now they were to disgussing how to make James and Lily friends again.  
  
"I still say that we should chain them together until they work it out." Said Peter, his arms crossed.  
  
"It would never work. Being chained is no pick-nick, even if you aren't fighting." Said Remus who was sitting next to Arabella.  
  
"What do you think Siri?" asked Arabella, looking at her brother who looked deep in thought.  
  
"I have the perfect plan." Said Sirius, smiling broadly.  
  
"What's that Padfoot?" asked Peter, who was still stuck on the 'chain them together' idea.  
  
"All we have to do is lock them in a classroom. It won't be awkword, and they can stay in there until they become friends again." Said Sirius who was very proad of himself.  
  
"Sounds good." Said Remus, nodding his head.  
  
"Remus! Have you gone mad?" cried Arabella, not believing that he was agreeing with her idiot brother.  
  
"Bella, it's the best idea we have. Besides, I'm sick of their fighting. It's been weeks!" said Remus, who was definatly making a point.  
  
"Ok, but lets get this over with." Said Arabella, giving in.  
  
They chose a classroom that had never been used by them, but did have desks and chairs. They waited just outside the doors to the castle until James and Lily decided to come in. Soon their plans were put into action. Lily decided to come inside after about a half hour of aimlessly walking around. She had seen James walk into the castle a few minutes ago, since she didn't want to bump into him again. That had been enough of a disaster. She opened the large oak doors and shut the door against the cold wind that had begun to blow. Just as she turned around, she came face to face with Remus, Sirius, Arabella and Peter. Before she could act, Remus and Sirius grabbed her from both sides and began to drag her up the stairs.  
  
"What the hell!" cried Lily, kicking her legs.  
  
"Just don't fight Lil. It will make things easier." Said Peter, leading the way up the stairs.  
  
"Let go of me! Let me go!" cried Lily, who didn't want to make things easier.  
  
They dragged her up to the third floor and threw her into the empty classroom. Lily scrambled to her feet and began to bang on the door as they locked it with a charm. She reached into her pocket, trying to grab her wand, but found that it was not there. Lily remembered that she had left it up in her dorm, concidering she didn't need it for walking. Instead of sitting back and waiting for her friends to let her out, she once again started to bang on the door with her fists, not noticing the man behind her who was laughing silently to himself.  
  
"That's not gonna work you know." Said James who was sitting on a desk.  
  
"And how do you know?" asked Lily, whirrling around to face him.  
  
"I speak from experience. They told me when they threw me in here that they were sick of our fighting and wanted us to get along." Explained James who had jumped down from the desk.  
  
"This is not fair." Said Lily in almost a whisper.  
  
"No. It's not." Whispered James as he turned his head to look away from her.  
  
Lily took off her cloak and scarf and placed the slightly soaked garments on one of the desks. She crossed her arms and looked around the classroom. She refused to look at James. She was afraid that she might do something stupid if she looked at him. Like yell at him or kiss him. They stood in silence for ten minutes, neither one making a move to do any reconsiling. It was James who finaly spoke, he at least wanted to give it a shot.  
  
"What is wrong with us?" asked James, who sounded more like he was making a statement than asking a question.  
  
"Excuse me." Said Lily, looking at him with a confused look in her eyes.  
  
"Why aren't we talking? Why?" asked James, who wanted to hear her side of it.  
  
"Oh I don't know oh obnoxious one. Maybe because you are a total arse!" cried Lily, who was surprised by what she said.  
  
James was slightly taken aback, but decided that this is the way she wanted to play it. "I'm an arse! What about you? You're cold as ice!" he cried.  
  
"That's rich coming from the Ice King." Said Lily, a cold look in her eyes.  
  
"You're crazy! No one can get close to you because your cold, cruel and insaine!" screamed James.  
  
"Well at least I'm better than you! You date a different girl every week! You never get close to anyone!" yelled Lily.  
  
"How can I when I have someone as crazy as you for a friend?" cried James, who stepped closer to Lily.  
  
"If I'm so crazy then why did you kiss me?" screamed Lily, who was now standing right infront of James.  
  
"Because I love you you idiot!" screamed James, not realizing what he just said.  
  
"Well I love you you jerk!" screamed Lily, before she could stop herself.  
  
It took a few seconds for this to sink in. They had just admitted that they loved eachother. In complete sinc, they became wrapped up in a passonite kiss, all the pent up emotion being released in one single action. They were so wrapped up in eachother, that Lily didn't realise that she was backed up against a stone wall, her hands were running through James' already unruley hair. The kiss was emensley passionate, James hands were running up and down her back and over her hip. Without even realizing it, his hand and moved under her violet jumper, which caused Lily to moan ever so slightly. It seemed they had worked it out after all.  
  
Inside the Gryffindor common room, the Marauders and Arabella were bent over the Marauders map, which Arabella had made a slight adjustment to. They could now see what was going on inside the classroom, and things didn't look good. At first, they were talking to eachother, but now it was just silence. A silence that they didn't want. Sirius was looking especialy impatiant with them. He wanted his friends to make up imidiatly.  
  
"What are they waiting for? Talk!" he cried, glairing at the map.  
  
"That's not helping." Said Arabella, who was the more patiant of the two.  
  
"So?" said Sirius, who wouldn't listen to reason.  
  
Then the arguing started. They could also hear what was going on, and they didn't like it. Insultes were flying around, until they heard them say three words, accompained by an insult that made them extreamly happy.  
  
"Did they just say what I think they said?" asked Arabella, her head to one side and her brow knitted.  
  
"Um, yeah." Said Remus, looking at the map with disbelief.  
  
Then they started to kiss, and their eyes went wide. Never had they expected this. "Holey crap." Said Sirius, his mouth gaping.  
  
"Wow." Said Peter.  
  
"I...I...I...can't believe it. Is this right?" said Arabella, not believing her eyes.  
  
"Yeah. They're really going at it." Said Remus, in shock.  
  
"I've been kissed like that before." Said Arabella, until the kiss intensified. "Or maybe not."  
  
"Prongs and Lily. Our Prongs and Lily!" cried Sirius, who was transfixed on the map.  
  
"We should not be watching this." Said Peter, who was trying to look away.  
  
"Oh yes we should." Said Sirius, still not looking away.  
  
They soon broke away, their breathing hard and shallow, their foreheads touching. They were both smiling like fools. Their fingers were intertwined, their palms pressed together. James kissed her forehead gently and he hugged her tightly; not wanting to let go. After a few minutes, the door clicked open and swung open on its hinges. As if some invisable force was pulling the door for them. Hand-in-hand they walked out of the classroom. Lily looked back at the room number, making sure that it was to be forever burned into her memory. They walked back to the tower slowly, not wanting to get back to soon. Treasuring their newfound love and the knowing that it was for real. When they got back to the tower, coming face-to-face with the Fat Lady who smiled sweetly at them as she looked at their swollen lips, their red faces and their hands. When they came into the common room, they saw their four shocked friends, who were gaping at them. Even though the map was in plain sight for them to know that they had been watched. Remus was the first to recover and congratulate them, after that he ran out the portrat hole to give himself time to think. Arabella followed him after she said her congratultions, smiling broadly. After a little while, Sirius dragged Peter upstairs to their dormatory. He needed to figure this out.  
  
"So, they took it well." Said Lily, the smile not leaving her face.  
  
"Well they did see the whole thing. They got quite a show." Said James who laughed.  
  
"That's what they get for spying on us." Said Lily who giggled a little.  
  
"What do you want to do now?" asked James, looking into her emerald eyes.  
  
"I have an idea." Said Lily, snaking her arms around his nealk.  
  
  
Christmas came in a flurry of wrapping paper, waffles and mistle toe. It was Christmas morning and the Marauders, Lily and Arabella were gathered in the common room in their pyjamas. Lily and James were wrapped up in eachothers arms under a blanket on a sofa. Sirius was sitting in a chair stuffing his face full of toffee, Peter was reading a book in another chair quietly, slowly flipping the pages. Remus was sitting in another armchair indian style, Arabella was sitting on the floor infront of him and he was reading over her shoulder. This was quite a quiet morning, there was no hurry to get down to breakfast, and even the boys weren't really hungry this morning. It was nine thirty when Sirius finished his toffee and declaired that he wanted breakfast. They all got up, changed into muggle clothes and walked down to the Great Hall. When they got there, they saw that it was all decked out for Christmas. Snow was falling from the enchanted ceiling, decorations hung everywhere and four large Christmas trees were in the corners of the hall. Since not a lot of people had stayed on for the holidays, there was only one table sat up in the center of the hall for the remaining teachers and students. The only students left, besides the Marauders, were three Ravenclaw sixth years and two second years, two Gryffindor first years and four Huffelpuff fourth years. The Marauders sat down at the table, Sirius emidietly grabbing a large plate of waffles and a pitcher of syrup. Arabella just shook her head as her brother stuffed his face for the second time this hour.  
After breakfast the gang decided to hang around the common room, but somehow Sirius got his hands on some mistle toe and was chasing them all around the common room and making people kiss. After lunch, when Sirius did not seem to quit, Remus and Arabella left to go somewhere without anyoing brothers. It took a half hour of this to make James and Lily go somewhere else so that they could...work in peace. They walked to the fourth floor and found a broom closet that Filch didn't seem to use much.  
  
"I'm so glad we got away from Sirius. If I see mistle toe again it will be far too soon." Said Lily as they walked toward the closet.  
  
"He can be anoying sometimes." Said James.  
  
"Sometimes is an understatement." Mumbled Lily, who ended up making James burst out laughing.  
  
They made sure that no one was coming, and James opened up the door, but to a sight that he didn't want to see. There were two people in that closet, Remus and Arabella to be exact. As soon as they noticed James and Lily, they jumped away from eachother and started to straigten out their clothes and hair. This made Remus wish he had locked the door.  
  
"Um...hi guys." Said Arabella, figiting slightly.  
  
"Hi yourself. So this is where you've been going. To snog Moony in a broom closet." Said James, smirking.  
  
"Yeah, kind of." Said Arabella, who was blushing furiously.  
  
"Well, this is something. Does anyone else know?" asked Lily, who was extreamly surprised.  
  
"Nope. Only you two." Said Remus who was blushing crimson. "And your not telling anyone!" he added.  
  
"We won't. Don't worry." Said Lily.  
  
"Afraid big brother Sirius will beat you eh Moony." Said James, who got hit in the arm by Lily.  
  
"Yeah." Said Remus.  
  
Remus hung his head slightly and leaned against the doorframe. Arabella was figiting more, and was gazing at the floor like there was something facinating about it. Lily looked at her, and thought that it was actualy quite sweet to have a secret relationship, it made more sense in this case. Sirius would be pretty mad if he found out that one of his best friends and his sister had been dating right under his very nose. Lily then had a thought. How long had they been together?  
  
"Um, if you don't mind me asking, how long has this been going on?" asked Lily, a little hesitantly.  
  
"Well, since the beginning of October. Almost three months." Said Arabella, blushing even more.  
  
"Congrats'! This is the longest relationship I've ever seen!" cried James with happiness. He thought this was quite extrodinary.  
  
"James!" cried Lily, once again hitting him on the arm.  
  
"What? It is. At lest in our group." Said James defensivly.  
  
"True, so true." Said Remus, nodding his head, the red blush leaving his face.  
  
Lily and Arabella shook their heads. Why did they have to be in love with such crazy and insaine men? It was the eternal question, and one that they asked themselves each time they did something stupid. They talked a little more, Arabella and Remus were actualy quite releved that someone knew about them. It made things a little easier. Now they had someone to cover for them. After talking a little more, James and Lily left to find a new broom closet and Remus and Arabella started from where they had left off. Things just got a little more interesting.  
  
  
It was now the day before everyone was to come back to Hogwarts. At the moment, the Marauders, Lily and Arabella were in the Slytherin common room setting up their latest prank. Since Snape and Malfoy had gone home for the holidays, there had been no pranks to play, so they decided to make the whole house feel glad to be back. James and Remus were setting up dung bombs in the boys and girls stairwells, they would set off as you walk up the stairs, not just at one point. Lily and Peter were changing the colours of the common room and bedrooms from green and sliver to red and gold, not a trace of green was to be found. Sirius and Arabella were doing le piece de resistance. There was a large banner hanging above the common room, the Slytherins loved to know how 'great' they were. The banner read, 'Go! Go! Slytherin! You will win, Slytherin!', yes it was not that great. Right on the side and going around the sides of the banner was a large green and sliver snake. They changed it to 'Go! Go! Gryffindor! Slytherin is no more!' in red and gold. The snake was now a mighty lion eating the snake in one large gulp and roaring loadly. Once they were done, they all gathered in the common room to admire their work. This was going to be great, and they made sure that they could see every minute of it with the adjustment to the map that Arabella had left on for just such an occasion. They then went back to their own common room to wait for tomorrow, some more pataint than others.  
  
It was very quiet when the group of Slytherins made their way down to the common room that morning. Snape and Malfoy loathed coming back to school, especialy with the new rumor going around. It seems that some of the people who stayed behind thought that Lily and James were now a couple, which silently hurt Snape. He did have a bit of a crush on Lily, although no one knew it. The bad part about having a crush on Lily Evans, was that she was always with the Marauders, and was a bit of a heartbraker in her own accord. Now the one thing that Snape didn't want might be coming true, Evans and Potter a couple. Practicaly the entire school thought that they were made for eachother, but the two had never acted upon it, and Snape was slightly glad about that. He wouldn't be able to stand it if the rumor was true.  
The Slytherins didn't think anything was wrong when a prefect said the password, that is until everyone actualy came into the common room. The could not believe that their common room was now like the Gryffindor's! Few people didn't know who had done this, and when the dung bombs went off, no one even wanted to stay to figure it out. When they all went down to breakfast, smelling horrible, the Marauders were the first to burst out laughing.  
  
"Welcome back Snapey!" cried Sirius, waving at them.  
  
"We missed you all so much!" yelled Arabella through her laughter.  
  
"Good to have you back!" cried James, smirking happily.  
  
"Wasn't the same without you!" called Remus, smiling sweetly at them.  
  
"This makes me so happy!" called Lily, whipping away a fake tear of happiness.  
  
"What a happy day!" cried Peter, putting his hands over his heart in emphisis.  
  
The Slytherins sat down at their tables, the rest of the hall bursting into laughter. The Slytherins, and the rest of the hall, couldn't help but notice that Lily was sitting on James' lap. It didn't seem to be awkword eaither. It was like they actualy were a couple. Once the laugter died down a little bit, Dumbledore stood up to welcome everyone back for the new term. He was smiling widely, his eyes twinkeling as he scanned over the Marauders. He cleared his throut and clasped his hands together, ready to speak.  
  
"Well, this is an interesting start to the new term. I hope that you all had a safe and happy Christams-" started Dumbledore until James and Sirius interupted.  
  
"Hell yeah!" cried James, kissing Lily's nealk while he smiled happily.  
  
"It's good now! Aint that right Snapey?" called Sirius, laughing hard as he waved to the person he liked teasing the most. Next to Lily.  
  
"-Thank you Mr. Black and Mr. Potter. As you know, these times are getting more dangerous, and so your professors and I have initiated a curfew." Groans were heard throughout the hall. "I know, but this is for your safety. Everone must be in their common rooms by nine o'clock. Anyone caught out of bed after that time will be given detention, intensity based on the time." Said Dumbledore, his voice sounding grave.  
  
"I ask you to NOT break these rules. These are here for your own safety, and if you chose to break them then you get whats coming to you." He finished, casting a glance at the Marauders before sitting down.  
  
Everyone ate their breakfast in silence. Sirius was especialy quiet, which was very unlike him. Usualy he was talking about a new girl he was dating or something completely insignifigent, but he wasn't saying a word. By the look on his face, the rest of the group could conclude that he was planning something. The wheels in his head were turning and coming up with some inginious prank or plan. This meant that they were going to get into a lot of trouble or have a very hard laugh afterwords. Sometimes it was both. They were all quite warry of what he was planning, but none more than Remus. This new curfew meant that they would get into a lot more trouble for coming out with him when he transformed. Lily and Arabella would also get into trouble. Every time they would leave so that he could transform, Lily and Arabella would cover for them. At dawn, they would get up early and come and wait for them so that they could help them back to the castle. They were all very tired after those nights, so sometimes it was very hard for the others to help Remus to the castle, as they were struggling to stay awake themselves. The girls helped them get back up to the tower so that they could get in a little sleep before breakfast.   
Another thing that Remus was worried about were Lily and James. Their prefect status was already hanging by a thread, and if they were caught they would probably get stripped of that status. Lily loved being a prefect, and even though she loved her friends more, Remus did not want to risk her and James getting into a lot of trouble...even if trouble was James' middle name.  
  
"You better not be thinking of something that will get us into a lot of trouble Padfoot." Said Remus, trying his luck.  
  
"It may, it may not." Said Sirius. He liked to be descreet and sectetive. He was funny that way.  
  
"Oh Sirius. Must you get us into trouble? I don't want to be expelled." Whinned Peter, looking around nervously.  
  
"Oh but I must Wormtail. It's in my blood." Said Sirius, gesturing to himself with his fork.  
  
"That's true. There's no stopping him." Said Arabella, taking a sip from her goblet.  
  
"You're a crazy prat you know that?" said James, Lily still positioned on his lap.  
  
"But you love me anyway." Said Sirius, smiling happily.  
  
The group groaned and the rest of the meal was eaten in silence. If what Sirius was planning was dangerous, or in other words something that they shouldn't be doing, then they would all have to pray that they weren't caught. But they were the Marauders right? The only people who never got doing anything in the entire school. Right? Right?  
  
  
A/N: Well, I hope you liked this enstaulment. I hope that you would all read and review this fic and I thank the people who have already reviewed this story. The next chapter will be coming soon, probably in about a week or two. REVIEW! 


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